"In this era of reality shows, something could be planned on numbers to make children play with it. Mathematics can boost students' logical and analytical power," Kumar said addressing a function on the occasion of 128th birth anniversary of mathematics legend Srinivas Ramanujan.

Kumar, who has named his academy in the name of Ramanujan, said there was a growing need to develop interest in mathematics among young students so that they enjoyed studying it. "It is not a subject to be afraid of, especially in the land of Ramanujan. Perhaps, there is some problem which we need to address," he added.

Kumar, who could not go to Cambridge due to poverty and has undertaken a mission to help others like him not to miss an opportunity in life out of shortage of resources and humble background, said he has always been inspired by Ramanujan.

Maintaining that Ramanujan was special and such legends were always rare, Anand said it was high time India drew inspiration from his legacy to produce more like him.

"And the process has to start early - from childhood. May be, our present education system is not able to identify and preserve talent. We are too engrossed with who qualifies for IIT or other exams and don't look forward, like America, Russia or China," he added.

Kumar said growing use of computers and calculators from primary school level was also affecting children's creativity.